302 GILBERT WHITE OF SELBORNE 1775 



Poor Brown * the artist ! it is the fate of most ingenious 

 foreigners ; they have no manner of economy. Forsterf 

 will be soon in the same condition; he and his son dress 

 like noblemen, and give £60 per ann. for an house ! 

 They have published * New Genera of Antarctic Plants.' 

 Benjamin has a share in this book : there is Barringtonia^ 

 a Sheffieldia, a Skinneria, &c., &c. Their great work or 

 * Voyage' is now under correction at Oxford. 



Have your churchyards in the North any yew trees ? 



Pray send me Reaumur's whole account of the Hippobosca 

 Mrundinis. Pray write soon. 



London is now Petersburg; it freezes under our beds 

 with shutters closed and curtains drawn. Brother Ben's 

 new house at S. Lambeth was last Sunday Archangel, with 

 the thermometer at eleven, and everything ice and snow. 

 My love to my sister, 



Y^ affect., 



Gil. White. 



Look in Anacreon's * TETTIH/ ode 43, and see if it 

 affords any apt motto for insects in general. 



I have been to Mr. Grimm, and am better pleased with 

 his performances than I expected; and think I must send 

 for him next summer. Brother Thomas talks of employing 

 him some time hence. 



The greater part of the following letter refers 

 to a purely private matter — the distribution of the 

 personal estate of Mr. Thomas Holt, great-uncle 

 (in|the half-blood) to Gilbert White. It is printed 

 as showing the shrewdness and caution with which 



* Peter Brown, a Dane, author of 'New Illustrations of Zoology,' pub- 

 lished this year, and mentioned by Pennant (' Lit. Life,' p. 25). — A. N. 



t J. R. Forster, who sailed with Cook on his first two voyages, being 

 accompanied on the second by George Forster, his son. — A. N. 



